Posts….

Carry On flinging…

  • Linen closet
  • Cat toys/supplies
  • Shoes

Does it feel like we should be DONE already???  I chose three categories this week….Some easy, some difficult?

Shoes, for ME, aren’t difficult. I may WANT a lot of pretty, impractical ones, but my feet don’t. I listen to my feet.

If you are going to judge me (for a job, promotion, friendship or what-have-you) based on the fact my shoes aren’t the to-die-for perfect pair for my outfit, rather than appreciate that I know my limitations and work within my abilities, so be it.

My horribly flat, bunion-ed feet need to be comfortable …free and barefoot if possible, but otherwise not forced into something that resembles the shape of my foot not one bit.

The linen closet in my home resembles an ironing board cubby, so I am somewhat forced into obedience here as well. (In my childhood home we actually HAD an ironing board cubby in the kitchen. Ours had shelving added and it was a nifty spice rack…)

A general rule might be:

One bath towel and wash cloth, per person, per day. (Do the math. That seems quite generous. Make it less if you know it works for you!!)  One set for every extra sleeping accommodation. (Couch, guest room, inflatable bed…) That isn’t to say you only use the things once and wash, but it seems more than a reasonable number to allow for laundry issues.

BIG HINT: They do not need to match the bathroom perfectly. They should be more than threadbare. If they are threadbare, move them to car-washing or pet-cleaning status.

If you remember to put them out, then seasonal linens are acceptable to keep. Think about storing them WITH the appropriate holiday decorations, however.

Sheets, pillowcases, etc. One set per bed ON the bed, two back ups. Again, you can allow for seasonal adjustments.

Really, do you need 6 or 7 sets for one bed? Save the nicest sets. (Highest thread count, not stained, still have all the matching pieces…) Maybe store the extra set for the guest room IN the guest room.

Blankets, comforters, quilts. Ok, quilter here. Do not ever fling a quilt. Not one that was made for you, or by someone personally. Find someone to give it to if you must, but it doesn’t go to Goodwill! The bed-in-a-bag $79.99 special, sure. But not one made by hand (By hand, I mean individually created and made by one person to give to anther person,  one at a time.) It can be made on a machine.

If your grandmother made it and you don’t want it anymore, and can’t find someone of your family or friends to take and appreciate  it, email me for my address. (Seriously.)

Blankets with holes–cut them up for pets, or turn into lap blankets or put in the trunk for emergencies.

Tablecloths. If you own them, do you use them? Is there a cabinet in the dining room where they fit and actually get pulled out to use? Otherwise, they seem like prime flinging material.

Pet supplies.

 

 IMG_5455 Rory.

 IMG_5599 4x6 GandolfIMG_3801 Miss Tatiana.

We have three (not short-haired) cats, seven cat brushes, four lint rollers and STILL have cat hair everywhere. Gonna have to fling the brushes that don’t work, and that they don’t like. Examine their toys and fling the ones that have had the stuffing pulled out of them. (Literally in our case. Hamish had a habit of disemboweling  little fuzzy mice. We would come home and find a flat green mouse and snowy white ‘innards’ of poly filling everywhere!) A crinkly bag (complete with fuzzy tail) houses all their toys, until they pull them out again.

I have a basket on the bookshelf in the den with the brushes and such, which I need to sort and fling. The bath and kitchen cabinets have their meds and vitamins and soaps, gloves and hose for bathing, but they were flung back when I did those rooms.

I think we may have come to just about the end of the easy stuff. Stay tuned, and start your spring cleaning in a spot you’ve already flung. It will be….well, not a joy….but far easier!

containing it all…

Well, the Olympics has been over for a week….did you find this week easier to fling or harder because of the topic (books and magazines?)….

I know I am slowing down…the beginning categories were easy….clothes, dishes, who CARES about that stuff!!! LOL.  It’s these last few weeks that I have not done well….I may need you to check on me and make sure I am walking the walk, ok? Can I hear some success stories?

I think I have, for the most part, resisted the urge to send you out to BUY things to hold all the stuff around you. I believe my thought process was something more along the lines of, ‘lets not buy more containers to store stuff we should be flinging, lets FLING!’ I tried to not fall into the ‘this will make everything easy, if you purchase XXXX"…’ trap.

There is always a breaking point, but the idea was not to get so sucked into the storage sales, the organizational sales that retail pushes on you at the beginning of the year. (Did anyone notice that one of the campaigns run for Sunday coupons was actually about tossing old medicines and clearing out medicine cabinets and re-stashing with all the first aid needs of your family?)

My breaking point is now. And since I have cleared all the shelves at the CVS’s near me, I can share this without fear of MY plans running amok!!

I love containers, boxes, bags….anything decorative that holds stuff. I break down and buy this cute little box or that adorable little basket.  The problems are two: They don’t all play well together. This box doesn’t fit on the shelf with that basket, or looks odd or doesn’t stack well.

The other, and far more difficult issue is that I prefer to have EVERYTHING out. Yeah, a bit of a conundrum. I love the boxes, and the way they make the area look pretty, crisp; and technically they are so helpful to organizing, but I need to have everything at my fingertips! I am a visual person–if I don’t see it, I don’t HAVE it.

Problem number two is a personal issue, that I will have to resolve (Tweak. I play at finding the best way constantly.)

But problem number one will simply require money, and a bit of decision making.

I had to lay out money to buy ALL of the particular storage totes that I decided worked best for me. (Yes, I found a sale.) But the fact is that these containers all stack neatly, are that milky clear color, and easily accommodate the items I want to store.

By the way, this storage is for the studio. I know, we haven’t gotten there officially. (and that many of you don’t have a studio…) …But I have LOTS of stuff going on in there.

Some of the containers I currently use in this room may be repurposed in other rooms, were decorative trumps function. Some others will be flung. This is going to be a LONG Fling in here, when we get there.

Thoughts on storage:

  • Big Lots, CVS, the Container Store, JoAnn Fabrics (the superstore sized ones), Target, Bed Bath and Beyond. There is no ONE place that is going to solve everything for everyone.
  • Just because I am modifying storage doesn’t mean what I have doesn’t count. I can gather the pieces that are similar and use them in some areas, because these pieces DO work. It’s the areas that are NOT working that I am playing with change.
  • Price DOES matter. (At least the full price.) Some of the ‘off’ brands may be great, but the larger items, the ones with drawers, the better (stronger, probably more expensive) brand is a better idea. Mostly because the drawers will not cave from weight, etc.
  • Plastic, wood, hat boxes, baskets: You need to decide on the type of storage and what will GO into the storage container. You are not limited to one type of storage, but resist the urge when shopping to buy a BUNCH of things that don’t work together. That’s what you (I) already have.

The next big task is to avoid simply moving things from box one to box two without flinging. It means that the look of the room is going to be worse while in progress. Accept this.

A labeling system and a shelving system to hold all your boxes needs to be assigned. I own a P-touch, or if you have nice handwriting, a Sharpie and some labels is fine. Something consistent would be better. (just the visual aspect of it….you will feel more organized at the end, don’t you think, if it looks crisp?)

After that?? It’s really up to you. I don’t know WHAT room you purchased containers for, I don’t know HOW you prefer storing things.  Just remember to FLING it first, and store only what is worth storing.

Make this a week to tweak what you have finished, look around the areas you have flung to see if it stayed flung or has it gathered stuff again—basically, ponder how things are going. Shop for some storage, if you find that is a place where you are lacking, and think about beginning your own version, at your own time, of Spring Cleaning. (I am SO not helping out on this one, sorry!!!)

27 books…27 Magazines

Oh, books, magazines, you are going to be hard.

Books mean a lot to me. I have them everywhere. I even read some of them. Others, I just keep for the pictures!

But books do not stay in one location in this house. There is the pile in the bedroom—reading, about to read, finished reading.

There are similar piles in the guest room.

And shelves in the studio, and the den and the living room. All full of books.

I want a “KindleNookSonyIpad”—an E-reader. I haven’t settled on which, I am curious to hear from those who have them already about their pros and cons. But even if I own one, I don’t truly see books going away in this house. Too many of them are reference. The photos, the how-to’s, I don’t know that E-reading is the way to go (or that it’s even supported well…)

The financial difficulty of replacing all the reference of my life precludes being able to assign new roles to all the bookshelves in the house. (Although if forced, I COULD reassign them to hold fabric….)

The joy of wandering through Goodwill or yard sales or other thrift stores, and investing a quarter or a dollar in a new author and discovering something special—that too will be gone with E-reading. The idea of having anything that I might want at my fingertips on vacation? In the car? Bored on my lunch hour?? Heck, yes!

Still. The books currently in the house–27 flinging. Right, get back on target.

Do you live in an apartment but have a shelf (or more) of garden books? Do you not cook but have a shelf of cook books? Think on why you have them. Is this about who you WANT to be versus who you ARE? Is it a temporary situation?

Some may be worth keeping, because they ARE special, and do have great information. Some, well. Fling them. We live in the information age. We CAN find the information again.

Travel is a great past-time, but travel books are often out of date by the time they are printed. As reference, the internet is far better, or contact AAA just before your vacation and get up-to-date publications.

Books about crewel, or needlepoint, when you can’t remember the last time you threaded a needle?? Fling.

That small bit of shelf of children’s books that you saved? Keep’em. (No more than about a dozen really special ones, unless you currently HAVE children in the house. In that situation, you keep them all, lol!) They bring back memories, and it will tickle your child some day that they still exist. They are a great thing to have if you have unexpected small company.

Novels you read and can’t recall? Fling. Novels you enjoyed, but the TBR pile is so overwhelming you can’t imagine the time you would ever read it again? Fling. (Write down the title and author, and get it onto your E-reader eventually.) Novels you have started to read more than twice and STILL haven’t finished? Duh! Fling.

Novels that you have written in the margins of, dog-eared, bookmarked and underlined passages of? They get kept. They are old friends. (Still, you may want an E-copy eventually.)

(Let me clarify this word FLING for this topic. This should read a bit more like ––Share— Give away to friends who read the same things you do. Introduce a neighbor to your favorite author. Donate the entire pile to your library for their book sale. Sell on Ebay, Half.com, put up on PaperbackSwap.com, etc. Save the whole bag/box till your next family gathering and put it on the counter for people to take as they please.)

Magazines are an entirely different sort of animal. My first suggestion is to not allow them into your home. Barring that, weed out the titles you subscribe to, keeping only the ones you actually READ when they are still fresh. Do NOT get sucked in at the grocery store line and toss them into your cart. Really, with magazines, you need to take a firm line!

I only purchase quilting magazines. And I try not to even buy them. I am seduced by the pretty colors of the quilts, yes, but even more so by the setting the photo was taken in, the clever title they gave to a block I own the directions to already (5 times, in many of the books I own)….

What I do with magazines like this is allow them to gather. When I have a large pile, I sit on the couch, or on the floor in the studio, with a stapler and rip out the patterns I really like. Staple together all the pages, and make a pile. The rest gets flung. (This pile should be moved to a magazine holder, of which I have cleared out a few that were being used for other things, like files)

I sometimes even hole-punch and put the patterns into three-ring binders. The fact of the matter is, unless I run out of THREAD, I need not another scrap of fabric, nor another pattern purchase in order to continue quilting—unless I live to be 300!!!

Oh, and tomorrow is March 1. (Happy Birthday, Jeanine)… Go back to the blog at the end of January and REPEAT the digital photo process!!)